St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-03-17
THE BOSTON HOlsHOR.
An Expert Opinion Regarding De.
fects i'm the Bridge.


New YORK, March 16,-The Engineer
ing News having thoroughly investigated
the Forest Hill disaster on the Boston Sc
Providence railroad. will publish the follow
ing in regard to it in this weeks issue:
The cause Of this. dreadful Catastrophe has
been very obscure in the newspaper accounts.
tue only certain thing having BEEN that the
bridge was sort of patchwork, nondescript,
which violates several OF the most important
and Fundamental requirements of good bridge
designing. We are now fortunately able to
shed far more light on what the precise cause
was than has heretofore appeared, or than is
at all likely to appear from any other source,
even i'll the official investigation, from the
fact that we have now in our Office
what will probably be the most i'm
portant bit of evidence in that investigation,
viz: the two original parts which in all hui
man probability were the first to break.
These parts are in the possession of Henry
G. Pritchard, G. E., practical bridge en-
gineer of Philadelphia, who undertook to crit
ically examine the structure ON behalf of
this journal, and who. went about il appar-
emily
LITTLE MORE SYSTEMATICALLY
than those who had preceded him, in con-
nection with further information gathered
for US within an hour or two after the ecci-
dent occurred, by Frederick Brooks, Z. E.,
of Boston. These fragments may be said to
be absolutely conclusive as to the real diff
Guilty, since twas possible that there should
have been more defective parts in the bridge
if it was to stand up ut all. The parts that
first broke were the two hangers which car
ried the last or most easterly pair of floor
beams of the northerly or last built truss,
which carried all the load. So far as can be
judged by outside appearances, they are
made of far from good iron 10 begin with. but
in addition to that they are of very bad de-
sign and most imperfectly welded. In addi-
tion to that again they are both Of them very
badly f1awed by old and deeply rusted breaks
at the most strained section, there being two
distinct breaks of this kind to each specimen
The first hanger has both breaks across the
weld, the first break being complete, and
THE SECOND BREAK
an inch and half above it, all but complete,
the metal merely hanging together by the
outside skin. This hanger can never have
done any work since its original and now an
cient fracture, or it would have been broken
apart long since. The second hanger was
checked across half of its inside face covered
by the supposed weld) for about half its
depth of effective section and this was clearly
where fracture first began. 1t caused a sec
ondary fracture at second old break in the
hook of the welded end which cut off some
what large proportion of the effective
strength of the iron. Ali this is clearly shown
in the engravings of the bridge and its broken
parts which appear in this issue, and the gen.
eral government of engineers will bear us out
in saying that more shamefuly bad speci-
mems Of bridge design, metal and workman
ship. can hardly exist. We regret to have to
express so sweeping condemnation of the
structure, but tine facts more than Justify it
and 1t is but right that in an occurance of this
kind the truth should be pointed out and
made clear without fear or favor 1t is
APPALLING to think of the tens of thousands OF
lives which have literally hung by a thread in
passing over this bridge during the past
eleven years.
THE VICTIMS.
Boston, March 16.-A number of vic
tins of the Forest Hill accident were buried
from Rosindale. Dedham and West Rox-
bury to day. There are many who are Sc
riously if not fatally injured in Roslindale,
whose deaths at any moment may be
looked fCr, and the probabilities are that
the deaths will number over thirty. Some
of the injured are SO badly shaken up and
internally injured that their recovery will
be matter of months. There are many,
too. who were removed Immediately after
the accident to various points in Rosiindale
whose names do not appear at all in the
papers. A Mr.. Young is severely injured
internally, and the doctor is very apprehen-
sive of the results. Alfred Swallow, aged
35, Is in bad condition, his bowels being
ruptured. Kanute Lutrop has big cash
on the back of his head and forehead. A
fresco painter named Session lies with an
injured spine. Those in Roslindale in a
critical condition are: Miss Nellie Trabra-
ham, injuries about the head, back and face,
very dangerous; Leo Trabraham, left leg
fractured. injury to shoulder, probable frac-
ture Of collar bone, cuts and bruises, about
head and face; Mr.. Harkins. injured about
head, neck and chest. probable concussion
of the brain, has not yet recovered full con-
sciousness; Joseph Metcalf is not expected
to live. was badly jammed in the bowels;
w. Peters. Chas. Morse. j.. Watson, John
Murphy and daughter Mamie, all of West